Nice post from OMG Lists, a site that apparently specializes in… lists? Nothing earth-shattering here, but worth a look.

The text is reproduced below, but be sure to visit the original post for video evidence.

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He’s one of indie filmmaking’s biggest names. If you ever find yourself watching a film you’re not sure who directed… here’s a checklist of signs to know you’re watching one of Anderson’s films.

5- Bill Murray Being Serious

If you’re seeing this comic king in a movie that was made in the past ten years it’s probably a Wes Anderson movie. Of the last fifteen film projects Murray has done four have been with Anderson. It was his role in “Rushmore” that made him an indie-film darling with such directors as Jim Jarmusch and Sofia Coppola. Murray has a strong commitment to Anderson, backing up the director by pulling out of his own pocket to help shoot a scene and also working for free in “The Royal Tenenbaums”. Their film relationship has produced some interesting film experiences as well as a partnership of respect and comradeship.

4- Slow Motion Endings

In all but one of his films, Anderson has ended with the slow motion shot. We saw Dignan leaving for prison in “Bottle Rocket”, Max’s Dance with Miss Cross in “Rushmore”, Royal Tenenbaums’s funeral, and Steve Zissou walk the red carpet all in slow motion into the end credits. It’s a signature style that Anderson has replicated in most of his films. Also notice the credits, first name in lower and uppercase but the last name is always uppercase. The only movie that broke the slow motion ending tradition? “The Darjeeling Limited,” which began with a slow motion shot of Peter Whitman barely making the namesake train.

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Wes and Jason were on CBC’s The Hour last night (video). Wes promised that Hotel Chevalier will be added to The Darjeeling Limited print in Canada.

Ain’t It Cool has a great interview with Wes and Jason, including Wes’ confirmation of a Criterion Collection edition of Bottle Rocket. Some highlights:

[about this]. Roman said they are both very smart, and he really liked them. And the old man said that he liked these brothers, that the movie is from their point of view traveling through India. And she doesn’t like them, but she also felt that the film exploited people in India. And I always feel like, that makes me unhappy to hear anybody say that because we went to India because I was fascinated with this country. We fell in love with it. We are tourists there; that’s all we can ever be there. But we’re tourists who are very interested in this culture and learning about it. It’s a place where people who go there and like it tend to love it, and the people who love it tend to want to go back. There is more religion, more variety of religion, more practice of religion, more rituals there than any place else I’ve ever experienced. I think that’s why people go on pilgrimages there because it’s a place where, if you’re open to it and interested it will genuinely have quite and impact on you just because of the intensity of the place. I’ve always found that I had very emotional experiences there, but then you get sensitive and wonder if that sounds kind of naive. I don’t know. I just hate to sound self-protective and defensive; I’d rather just express our real feelings about it….

It’s taken us a long time to get this [Fantastic Mr. Fox] going, but we finally got it going. Noah Baumbach and I adapted it. George Clooney is going to play Mr. Fox. We’ve just started working on it in England, and it’s going. We have a guy named Mark Gustafson directing the animation. Henry [THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS] Selick was going to do it originally but over time that didn’t work out because Henry has his own thing he’s directing [CORALINE, based on Neil Gaiman’s novel]….

I think the closest thing to compare it to is that Eastern European stuff, because the animals are going to have fur, and the sets are meant to look kind of like real life. So it’s more in the vein….

[about the Criterion Collection DVD] That’s right. We just have to do a lot of work to prepare it, but that’s in the works. I was supposed to do a bunch of stuff already that I didn’t do yet, so I’m going to get on it though. But some of the stuff is at my mother’s house in Texas, so I have to go to Texas and dig through all my boxes, because there’s materials for the movies that I haven’t looked at in a long, long time. And we want to try and include everything that might be good….

Jason’s new album Nighttiming is available as an MP3 download on Amazon.com. Buy it here — it supports the site.

Go see The Darjeeling Limited this weekend! It opens in thirteen new markets today:

Dallas/Ft. Worth
Philadelphia
San Diego
Seattle
Baltimore
Denver
Minneapolis
Phoenix
Austin
Portland
Hartford/New Haven
Vancouver
Montreal

Head on over to the Yankee Racers forum, and discuss why Jack doesn’t wear shoes.

Watch this great production video, then read the production designer Mark Friedberg’s “personal experience” from the Media Alerts below.

Media alerts

• “Calling in a favor,” Wes and Roman talk about Bill Murray as the Businessman (Boston Now
• Wes and Jason will be guests on WHYY’s Radio Times, Friday, October 12th at 10 am (if you miss it live, NPR updates their audio archive for the show around 1.30 pm)
• Production designer Mark Friedberg’s “Personal Experience” in Huffington Post
• “Brewed with Music” at Portfolio.com:

Wes wanted to have a unified sort of sensibility, and those [Kinks] songs appear in the film at three critical moments: one at the head of the film, one in the middle of the movie and then one at the end of the film.

More soon…

Darjeeling Limited did gangbusters at the box office this weekend.

“We are extremely excited about it,” Fox Searchlight’s Sheila DeLoach said Sunday. “Wes Anderson’s fans came out in droves.”

Terry Gross interviews Wes and Jason on NPR’s Fresh Air

Bill Murray’s Darjeeling Evening

Interview with Wes, Jason, Adrien on LA.COM

Article on US reaction to Darjeeling from IndieLondon

Glenn Kenny’s night at the Darjeeling premiere

Chicago Sun Times Interview with Wes

Incredibly detailed analysis of the Darjeeling marketing campaign

Interview with Wes in the New Jersey Star Ledger

Jason Schwartzman on The Early Show

Variety has an article on the New York Film Festival, which includes this alarming anecdote:

“John Powers saw an early sneak of ‘Rushmore’ and as I remember the people at Disney had no idea what to do with it. There was some talk of it going straight to video. John called and said, ‘I saw this film, it’s really terrific, can you do anything about it?’ And so I called up Disney and, to make a long story short, by inviting the film, I think we (staged) an intervention in its future.”

That was indeed an elephant pin Bill Murray was wearing, more on that here.

Photos and reviews are surfacing after last night’s premiere at the New York Film Festival.

Official Premiere.com review:

“Reason for moviegoers to rejoice. . . The movie does so many things so well — one such thing is realizing Brody’s potential as a comic actor. . .The surface pleasures of the film are so beguiling that you might not catch its other spells right away.” Glenn Kenny

Pete Hammond of Maxim:

“A wonderful mix of humor and humanity with vintage Wes Anderson at his finest and funniest, as he takes us on a soul-searching magical mystery tour.”

The Portland Mercury:

“In a lot of ways it’s the loosest of Anderson’s movies . . . what strikes me right now is simply how genuine the film feels. . . Anderson catches a lot of shit for his hyper-detailed design and excessive stylization, but more often than not, and this includes Darjeeling, he backs it up with beautiful characters and authentic emotions, and there are some really beautiful and moving moments in the film.” - Erik Henriksen

Paper Magazine:

“Wonderful . . . wildly heartfelt as well as quirkily funny. Book passage immediately.” - Dennis Dermody

Pics from the premiere - is Bill Murray wearing an elephant pin?

The Darjeeling Limited opens the New York Film Festival tomorrow (if you are going, please send your reports and photos to edwardappleby @ yankeeracers.org, no spaces). Hotel Chevalier, the 13 minute prequel to (or ‘Part I’ of) The Darjeeling Limited, was released on iTunes yesterday.

• Hotel Chevalier at the iTunes Store
• Yankee Racers forum threads: Hotel on I-Tunes, Hotel Chevalier Commentary Thread

Many fans have been frustrated with the limited availability of the short film. Russer, from the Great White North, writes:

Please mention on your website that people around the world are wanting to see “Hotel Chevalier” just as much as [A]mericans do. Unfortunately, iTunes does not allow people outside of the US to download the short film even if they are current customers. Ridiculous!

Many of the Yankee Racers have been upset about this problem, and the difficulties of dealing with iTunes (i.e. needing to enter a credit card number to register for an iTunes account, even if the film itself is free). We are excited — thrilled — about the film, but we hope Fox Searchlight and the Wes team find a more democratic/international method of distributing the free short.

I have received leads on MANY relevant newspaper and magazine articles. I will try to archive them here on the website once the initial commotion has ended, but until then, some links:

• Marc Jacobs and The Darjeeling Limited in the New York Observer
• Film Comment’s Chris Norris writes “Baggage” (1) (2) (3) (4)
• “A Conversation with Director Wes Anderson” in The Huffington Post
• “Coming Soon: A New Take on the Old Double Bill” in the Wall Street Journal
• “Darjeeling” director powers this train in USA Today
• “Strangers on a Train” in the Village Voice
• “The Life Obsessive with Wes Anderson” in New York Magazine
• (update) “Sound Effects: Interview with Randall Poster” in Men’s Vogue
• (update) Wes Anderson describes the “Anatomy of a Scene” in the New York Times

In the New York Magazine piece, there is an exchange between the writer (David Amsden) and Wes about recent criticism of his work, The Life Aquatic in particular. Wes’ eloquent response is worth quoting at length:

At one point I [the author] bring up a recent essay by Michael Hirschorn in the Atlantic Monthly arguing that, as a culture, we are “drowning in quirk,” an aesthetic he defines as the “embrace of the odd against the blandly mainstream.” … Anderson, who in person is typically quite calm, becomes suddenly animated by the topic. “You know, I’ve heard that argument a million times, and it’s completely uninteresting to me,” he says. “It’s just deadeningly unoriginal. If you have ideas that you think can contribute to a movie, that you think might help you honestly enjoy it more…” … “When they say a movie I make is smarter-than-thou, that the movie is ‘too smart for its own good,’ as if we’re making movies to try to show everybody how great and cool we are…well, that’s just not the case. We’re trying our hardest to entertain people, to make something people will like, something people will connect with. I don’t think there’s a great effort to try to make some statement about ourselves, you know?”

About.com review:

“A wonderful film. It’s a pleasure to write that sentence. I want to write it again. The Darjeeling Limited is a wonderful film — both funny and affecting.” - Marcy Dermansky

The New York Sun review:

“The Darjeeling Limited” is Mr. Anderson’s most heartfelt film. . . Now that he’s freed from his own tendencies, it is again exciting to ponder where Mr. Anderson will travel next.” - S. James Snyder

New York Press’ resident eccentric Armond White weighs in:

“Casual moviegoers might grumble that Anderson’s vision is “quirky” and doesn’t allow for the mass hypnosis of self-reflexive trash like Superbad or Ocean’s Thirteen. But The Darjeeling Limited is so reflective of personal experience (within the context of rarefied pop antecedents) that it returns common emotional power to today’s fragmented, disingenuous popular culture.”

Eric Kohn - also of the New York Press:

“Having seen Darjeeling twice, I feel firmly convinced that it’s one of Anderson’s greatest accomplishments.”

Lisa Schwartzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gives Darjeeling a B+:

“There’s a startling new maturity in Darjeeling, a compassion for the larger world that busts the confines of the filmmaker’s miniaturist instincts.”

Check out this video interview with Brody and Schwartzman - there’s a mini review at the end.

Finally, the MTV Movies Blog mentions that (link) Bill Murray has been “enlisted” for The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Mr. Anderson’s next film, an adaptation of the children’s book by Roald Dahl. George Clooney will be Mr. Fox. Jason Schwartman will offer his talents. The fantastic Cate Blanchett and Anjelica Huston are rumored to be part of the (voice) cast as well. Wow, I haven’t even seen the new one yet, and we’re already excited about the new new one!

As usual, send your questions, links, leads, and other coherent statements to edwardappleby @ yankeeracers.org (no spaces).

Hotel Chevalier and The Darjeeling Limited screened this evening at the Venice International Film Festival. We excitedly await photos and reactions. While Owen Wilson sadly could not attend the festivities, Wes had positive news about Owen at Venice:

Obviously he has been through quite a lot this week. I can tell you he has been doing very well, he has been making us laugh. When he’s ready he’s going to speak for himself much better than any of us could. He has got a very good way with words. (Times)

Ed Hardy, Jr’s “Shoot the Projectionist” blog is sponsoring a month-long Wes Anderson “blog-a-thon”:

Each week I’ll be unveiling a new essay about Wes Anderson, and Darren, our Opinion-at-Large, will contribute a list of his favorite moments in each Wes Anderson film. I’ll also be posting a new image from Darjeeling Limited everyday.

Ed’s current essay is titled “Wes Anderson, Nostalgia, and the 11 Year Old Point-of-View.” It’s worth checking out (be sure to read the comments, too).

Finally, we offer you some early photos of the gang from The Darjeeling Limited at Venice. Please send reactions, leads, and photos to edwardappleby @ yankeeracers.org (no spaces).

(special thanks to Yankee Racers ‘SugarMagnolia’ and ‘Loraxaeon’ for the leads)

From India eNews.com

Hollywood stars Owen Wilson and Adrian Brody have completed the last leg of shooting schedule for the Darjeeling Limited in this city of palaces and lakes known as the Venice of the East.

The Academy Award-nominated American actor-writer along with co-stars Broody and Jason Schwartzman are had landed here Jan 17 and spent about eight hours every day shooting for the India-centric film. The stars and the film unit are expected to leave for home later Tuesday.

Also Bill Murray will be a guest on tonight’s episode of The Late Show with David Letterman. Bill will help Dave celebrate his 25th year on late night television. I will try and get a video up if he mentions anything related, and post it here for those who miss it.

New York Magazine, December 20, 2004

What did the idiosyncratic director do with his first full-size budget? He put Bill Murray into a father-figure role, and gave him a speargun.

Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou looks, at first, as though it’s the inevitable final entry in what you might call Anderson’s Great-Search-for-a-Father-Figure Trilogy. It’s of a piece with previous Anderson movies like Rushmore (1998) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), in that it features a selfish bastard (Bill Murray in the first; Gene Hackman in the second) who, in crumbling middle age, decides it’s important to impart some of his wisdom, or at least his hard-won cynical savvy, to a young man who views him as a father figure, if not an actual father. What’s with the dad thing, Wes?

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Interview (magazine), February 1999

Not since the mid-to-late ’80s — the days of movies like Blue Velvet, True Stories, Raising Arizona, and Something Wild — has there been a slice of post-modern Americana as funny, thoughtful, and downright weird as the unmissable Rushmore. The film tells the tale of fifteen-year-old nerd entrepreneur Max (played by astounding newcomer Jason Schwartzman), who gets tycoon Mr. Blume (Bill Murray) to sponsor his madcap schemes so he can impress the schoolmarm he desires (Olivia Williams), only for the melancholy millionaire to fall for her himself.

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